History of Maíandir
The recorded History of Maíandir extends back roughly 8,000 years, with vague legends and myths describing previous events, namely elven stories of the Precursors and their exploits. Little is known of what came before that, and though plenty of theories and mythologies may exist, there is no recorded knowledge about the creation of the world. The earliest written historical transcripts on the continent are far more recent, dating back roughly 3,000 years, though many describe events that had happened in the interim and had been passed down through oral tradition. These early written records, written primarily by Athelian elves in the Argent Basin, were often vague or heavily embellished, and many have been lost to time, though the scholars of the Iron Stylus have endeavoured to preserve as many as they can. Importantly, several written records exist of the so-called War of Ashes, but these appear to have been written after the conflict rather than during, and are sometimes dismissed as wildly inaccurate claims. The dating system on Maíandir is based off the elven calendar, which was initially established to count from the approximate year of departure of the Precursors, the year 0E 0. Each era, marked by the E'' in the date, lasts for 2,000 years. All dates before then, typically estimates, are labelled as ''BD, meaning Before Departure. Prehistory * The Long Silence (c. 20 million BD): Before the arrival of the Precursors, there is no record of sentient life on Maíandir. The continent was for the most part covered in thick layers of ice and snow, and life in general was sparse. This period is called The Long Silence, primarily because the world was silent from lack of life, although it is a common joke that the name also implies that the air was so cold, that any who would have been able to speak would have had their tongues frozen before they could. This ice age lasted a great many years, the exact number unknown, and would only come to an end with the arrival of Ygdren's first inhabitants, the Precursors * The Dawn '(c. 15,000 BD): No exact date can be accurately estimated for the arrival of the Precursors, as they left little trace of their passing. The only knowledge of how they even came to be is fanciful fiction and wild theories, but what is generally accepted is that they were immensely powerful, in tune in some way with the arcane fabric of the world. They supposedly used this power to shape life, lighting the first sparks of sentience, both on Maíandir and on the other continents. As legend would have it, it was they who first discovered firbolgs, or at the very least their ancestors. Firbolg legend speaks of this time as ''The Dawn, but naturally little detail is remembered, due in part to a long period of hibernation that the race undertook shortly thereafter. It is theorised that the Precursors stayed on Maíandir for several thousand years, until their sudden disappearance, a year that would much later become the start point of elven history. * 'The Second Frost '(c. 2,000 BD): Some time before the Precursors disappeared, the ice returned to claim much of the known world. Certain theories tend to speculate that this event was caused by the wane of the Precursors' powers, which had thawed the ice in the first place, though this cannot be proven. Regardless of the cause, another long winter began, and the few fledgling species on Maíandir at the time either died out or went into hibernation. One such race were the firbolgs, who vanished from the Argent Basin for near 7,000 years. There are hints of great environmental changes during this time, culminating in some sort of massive storm that devastated and churned the earth, creating many of the modern day mountain ranges that ring the Argent Basin on all sides, and supposedly flooding most of the lower valleys, creating the great sea that is now known as the Mit'lhorn. Some time during this cataclysmic period, the Precursors vanished, though interestingly some who remembered them seem to have remained, as ancient temples and inscriptions in their worship can be found to this day. Early History * '''Settlement of the Argent Basin (c. 0E 1000): The first new traces of life on the continent came roughly 3,000 years after the land froze over for a second time. Around this time, elven nomads settled numerous small villages along the coast of the Mit'lhorn. They were primarily hunters, gatherers, and fishermen, as the frigid earth allowed little room for agriculture. They used stone tools and lived in small stone huts up and down the coastline. Displaying a certain tenacity for survival, and armed with long life and generally heightened durability, the first elves made do in the frozen wasteland they called home; growing gradually in numbers, expanding their technology, and progressively inching their way inland when the snows finally began to melt. The first steps into the fields of metallurgy and metalworking date happened roughly 3,000 years into this period, by which point elven tribes had begun to form in larger clusters, and their cultures had split into several distinct groups. * The Thaw (c. 2E 700): Though the thaw itself begun long beforehand, it would take countless centuries up to this point before the glaciers receded back to the mountains, marking the true end to the frost. With Maíandir free at last of its icy burden, life began to flourish. Elves expanded rapidly in the grasslands and valleys of the Argent Basin, firbolgs reappeared once more in the emergent woodlands, dwarves settled in the Celcaras and the Mogul Caí, and aarakocra roosted in the northern Ardari. Most likely during this period, a group of elves also travelled west across the sea, settling the large peninsula that would later be called Scedon in the region of Ravnmark. These elves, isolated from their peers, would develop their own branch of culture, influenced greatly by the tribes of hill dwarves that lived in the far western mountains. The sudden influx of resources accelerated growth on all fronts. Agriculture and construction improved a substantial amount, new techniques of ironwork came to the fore, and most importantly writing was first developed during this period, with traces of basic symbols and lettering dating as far back as 2E 950. The First Age * 'First Contacts '(2E 1250): The formation of the various cultures in the core of Maíandir heralded the dawn of the First Age, a period during which expansion and development continued to accelerate exponentially. By this point, writing had become rather more commonplace, and the first properly written historical transcripts began to appear, datinig back to 2E 1455, though the elven calendar was not yet in use at this point. Instead, time was marked between solar alignments, when the two suns would cover each other. Nowadays, this event is called the Winter Solstice, and marks the end of the year. Due to their proximity, firbolgs and elves were amongst the first races to interact in this period, trading for goods and establishing generally peaceful relations. First encounters with dwarven tribes in the Celcaras foothills, 2E 1567, were less amicable and records of skirmishes in the Celcaras foothills are widespread. Soon thereafter, similar hostilities sprung up near Aukatan, following first encounters between elves and aarakocra. * 'Expansion '(2E 1672): With the ice continuing to retreat, passages through the Ardari opened up, leading the way to the Marble Vale, and opening up contact with the nomadic tribes of gnomes that inhabited those mountains. Groups of elves very quickly spread into the new lands, which were mostly uninhabited except for roaming clans of hobgoblins and goblins in the hills to the far south, near the sea. The Marble Vale would prove to be very fruitful to the elves, providing much needed rich farmland and flat terrain, but there was little time to settle the new lands before the erstwhile peace came to an abrupt end with the start of the War of Ashes. The Dread War * 'Fire & Flame '(2E 1688): Historical transcripts of this era fall back into disarray, and many events are speculative or pieced carefully together from surviving evidence. From what is known, the dreadborn launched a full-scale invasion seemingly out of nowhere, in the middle of a stormy night at the height of winter. They came down from the Ardari and swept through the entirety of what is now Norfeld Reach before first light. Entire tribes were wiped out on that first day, thousands dead. Caught entirely unprepared, the inhabitant races had little time to react. A vast majority of gnomes were captured in the mountains, surrounded on all sides. Aarakocra descended into the valley in droves, forced out of their homes by the oncoming tide.Chaos reigned during the first few years of the war, old alliances forgotten in the mayhem, elven fighting desperately for their lives, but losing badly. The dreadborn lingered in their newly conquered land for a while, reducing it to a charred wasteland. While the main force regrouped, packs of feral creatures ravaged the north coast of the Ashburn, forcing survivors to evacuate northward towards the Everglades. * 'First Alliances '(2E 1691): Realising that they were vastly outnumbered, many of the remaining elven tribes began to band together in impromptu unions, in a bid for survival. Understanding the benefit of this, elders began to reach out to other coalitions of tribes, including those of other races, and gradually the alliance grew. Three years into the conflict, the largest meeting of individual chieftains in history took place at an old fortress in the mountains, with almost all the elven and aarakocran elders in attendance. Together they formed the first semblance of what would later become the Northern Alliance. * Inevitably, the dreadborn pressed their advantage soon after the first assault. Their numbers seemed endless, while those of the struggling alliance only dwindled. In 2E 1694, dreadborn legions crossed the Ashburn and swept steadily northward. Refusing to surrender an inch of ground, alliance forces extracted a heavy toll, but paid an equally terrible price. By 2E 1699, the dreadborn had cut a path straight across the region, securing their first outposts on the southern bank of the Witherburn in early 2E 1700. Much like they had done previously, they seemed content to wait before crossing the wide river. * 'Near Extinction '(2E 1700): By this point in time, less than a third of the population of the Argent Basin before the war remained living. They had been pushed into the northern third of the region, an area that was largely covered in tangled forests of silverpine trees. The most consequential battle of this period came two years later in 2E 1702, where the combined forces of elves and aarakocra met the dreadborn at the Battle of Erindel Ford, on the shores of the Witherburn. It was a rout in favour of the demonic forces, and the alliance suffered heavy losses, conceding the entire southern half of the Argent Basin and retreating into the dense woodland. Realising that there was no hiding from this storm, the firbolgs joined the tattered alliance soon after. They knew the woodland well, and proved useful in the skirmishing tactics the alliance was forced to adopt as the dreadborn laid siege to the Everglades. * 'Turn of Tide '(2E 1706): The ancient magic that pervaded the thick forests where the alliance had now established their remaining territory gave the dreadborn pause for some time, and although there were frequent skirmishes at the edges of the area, the two opposing forces found themselves at a stalemate. This would come to an end in 2E 1706, four years after the disastrous battle at the Witherburn. A daring raid by seafaring western elves, on the labour camps where the gnomish population had been enslaved took the dreadborn largely by surprise, and disrupted the machine of war significantly. It was the first major victory for the alliance, and would prove a turning point in the tide of the war. The gnomes that escaped with the raiding party, a large chunk of the remaining gnomish population, joined the alliance shortly after in 2E 1707. * 'Pushing Back '(2E 1708): Emboldened by their success, the alliance regrouped and began to strike back at the encroaching legions of fiends. Desperate to get into the forest, groups of dreadborn swarmed into the mountains and circled around through the Celcaras range to flank the area. They ran straight into the dwarven settlements in the area, and promptly invaded. The dwarves, who had so far refused to join the alliance and chose instead to fortify their own homes, were quickly forced to seek aid. In 2E 1710, the transcripts show first records of dwarves fighting in the valley floor alongside the rest of the alliance. With these much needed reinforcements, the unified forces were able to slowly but surely push the beleaguered dreadborn back past the river. * 'Victory '(2E 1714): The many minor battles and skirmishes came to a head at the Battle of the Silver Eye, where the dreadborn commanders established a fortified position on a small islet in the middle of the Witherburn. Deciding to attempt to force an end to the war in one bold stroke, the Northern Alliance armies gathered and approached the area from the north. The assault was meant to serve as a distraction for a powerful ritual designed by lead sorcerers in the alliance camp to dispel the dreadborn to another plane of existence. The battle, lasting for over a week, proved successful, and those few surviving dreadborn who managed to escape the ritual or the fighting scattered southward. * By 2E 1716, all traces of the dreadborn in the Argent Basin had been cleared, marking the official end to the war. The surviving populations separated into their respective territories, and began the long arduous process of rebuilding their homelands. The Age of Restoration * 'The Short Peace '(2E 1716): Though it is remembered as a time of relative quiet, the Age of Restoration ''was a time of constant cultural and social upheaval. Coming immediately off the back of of the Dread War, most of the tribes that occupied the Argent Basin and the surrounding territories had been either wiped out or had their numbers so drastically reduced that they would vanish within a few years. In an effort to survive, many of these fragmented tribes were absorbed into those tribes that were lucky enough to have many of their members still standing, thereby swelling their numbers. Some tribes however refused to willingly merge with others, and typically such territorial disputes were resolved as they always had been, with bloodshed. * '''Warring Kingdoms '(2E 1720): Over time, two distinct elven cultural groups developed on the mainland: the Elvedel and the Arlans. Both equally powerful, with numerous sub-tribes spread out over the region, they more or less assimilated all other competition in the area. By 2E 1750, the tribal clusters had aggregated into six large, centrally run "kingdoms". Their cultural bonds did not stop these "kingdoms" from warring internally, but fighting against opposing factions took priority, especially if those factions stemmed from the opposing cultural group. * Across the sea, the Sceída had also more or less unified under one banner, forming a warring coalition that made use of their skill as sailors to ravage the coasts of Maíandir. In the mountains, dwarves clustered into two overarching groups: hill dwarves at the western tip of the Mogul Caí, mountain dwarves in the northern reaches of the Celcaras. The gnome population, the little that remained, took back their former homes in the Ardari, and lived in relative peace and cooperation with all, aware that their numbers were tethering on the edge of extinction. Similarly, the aarakocra separated into small clans as they had lived before, but this time with agreements in place that forbade the killing of other aarakocra. In general, the different races kept to themselves, respecting the terms of the alliance that had bound them during the war. * By 2E 1788, the cultural divide between Arlans and Elvedel had led to almost constant conflict between factions. Sceída raided the coast constantly, fuelling the fire. Internally, Elvedel and Arlan chieftains continued to squabble over territory and resources. Few places remained in the Argent Basin that had not been claimed by some warlord or another. Notable amongst these was the small town of Silverthorne, that had sprung up around the islet where the final battle of the War of Ashes had taken place. The trading port, growing on both sides of the winding river, remained neutral, despite being in relatively fertile land and an extremely defensible position. * This state of affairs would last over 400 years, with borders continually shifting and changing. Despite the upheaval, this time range was still a recovery period from the losses of the Dread War. Populations began to grow again, technology started to get back on track, and in general the Argent Basin flourished. The Age of Conquest * 'King of the Elvedel '(3E 198): A young elf by the name of Athelvad, born in 3E 122 near Lake Lynnwel, marched into Silverthorne with a small band of loyal followers, claiming the town as his capital for a unified elven kingdom. Many of the Elvedel families rejected his claim initially, but Athelvad proved ruthless and effective, treating those that swore fealty fairly but near wiping out those who stood against him. By 3E 200, Athelvad had united the Elvedel Crownlands and Norfeld Reach under his rule, the latter succumbing peacefully upon seeing the success of his unification. The small region of Lydfel by the southern coast would fall shortly after. * 'Civil War '(3E 223): Although Athelvad spent quite some time consolidating his conquests, it was clear to all that his ambitions did not stop with the Elvedel families. Attempting to cut off the problem at the head, the twin kings of Arlia led two separate armies north towards Silverthorne, aiming to attack the city from both sides. The army of North Arlia was ambushed near Erindel Ford, the main crossing outside the capital, and utterly destroyed. The king, leading his army, was beheaded personally by Athelvad himself. In a bold move, Athelvad then ignored the other Arlan army and surged into North Arlia, subjugating the entire kingdom within a matter of months. * Cut off and starving, the army of South Arlia surrendered near Haedon, and the price of their defeat was the total and utter annexation of North Arlia. With one of the Arlan kingdoms now under his reign, Athelvad turned his attention to Windermere, which was a far richer prize. By 3E 225, the region had fallen, beseiged by Elvedel ships and by a rampaging army burning its way through Barrowdale Forest. Luinfeld, encompassing much of the thick woodlands north of Silverthorne, proved to be a much more difficult nut to crack. The campaign into the forest left a trail of bodies in its wake, until it finally came to a close in 3E 226 when the king of Luinfeld died suddenly of illness. Luinfeld surrendered, and the Argent Basin, to become known as Atheldael, was firmly under a single crown. * 'The Northern Alliance '(3E 240): Though Athelvad spent many of his remaining 35 years asserting his rule, his dream of unifying all Maíandir under a single empire would never come to pass in his lifetime. Nevertheless his campaign and later peacekeeping efforts were wildly succesful, and this led to significant worry among the other members of the Northern Alliance, since King Athelvad now held enough manpower to defeat all of them combined in open battle. It was decided ultimately that the alliance would continue, but the shift in the balance of power led to the other races in the coalition having to swear fealty to the elven king, a fact which some (notably dwarves from the Celcaras region) resent to this day. The swearing of these oaths, binding the five races together forever, would finally cement the Northern Alliance as a permanent union in the year 3E 240. Athelvad died in 3E 275 surrounded his his three sons, all of whom swore to pursue his dreams of conquest. * 'Marching South '(3E 324): Athelvad's eldest son, who shared his name and was now king of Atheldael and the blossoming Elven Empire, would continue this dream with his sweeping march down through the Ardari into the Marble Vale, which at the same was loosely populated with a few squabbling kingdoms. One by one, Athelvad II fulfilled his father's legacy and unified all of them under his banner, going as far as the steppes of Maruk and striking a truce with the hobgoblin Khans who lived there. The Marble Vale became part of Atheldael in 3E 327. All of eastern Maíandir, as well as parts of Ravnmark, now belonged to the Elven Empire. Seeking to avoid conflict, the Emir of Samarkhet promptly opted out of war, seeking vassalage as a means of protection. * 'Rebellion '(3E 462): The proud people of Samarkhet did not take kindly to serving at the beck and call of another king, even one who left them relatively unmolested aside from heavy taxation of Amber trade. Several rebellion occurred over the course of the vassalage, most notable of which was the massacre of 3E 462, when the Emir and his family were murdered in their palace. Taking a page from his father's book, Athelvad II led a scorched earth campaign against the rebels, publicly executing many Mordael civilians until the leaders of the rebellion had had enough. They too were executed, and Sol Kalahar was placed under the rule of an imperial governor, second only to the king. The Golden Age of Maíandir * 'An Empire United '(3E 722): Once the rebellions quietened, and the dust of war finally settled, the Elven Empire began to flourish. By 3E 722, elven influence had spread all the way from Ravnmark in the north, south to Maruk, and west past the desert, where explorers first met human settlers in the region they called Kyoshai. These settlers had landed further south in Yuantica many centuries ago in lands that now belonged to the Domari Sovereignty, and had over time spread north away from the harsh savannah and jungle. The sovereignty had fought for its land since the first footsteps on Yuantican soil, and recognised a kindred ally in the Elven Empire. The two forged close ties, exchanging trade and culture by land and by sea. * By 3E 862, this trade had made both empires wealthy and complacent. Much of Atheldael became a political battleground of earls and thanes struggling for riches and land, and although no official military action took place, the bickering often caused bloodshed. Nevertheless, armies had no place in this time and place other than as a show of force, and the days of the professional army Athelvad had established came to a close, seemingly for good. Over the next four centuries, most standing military forces were disbanded, since the threat of war was near null. This would come to a sudden and abrupt end in 3E 1248, when waves of invaders from across the sea landed on the eastern shores of Atheldael. The Age of Man * 'Invasion '(3E 1248): Not much is known about why the human tribesmen travelled west across the Great Expanse, but upon landing at the mouth of the Andrel they swept through the wetlands quickly, establishing an impromptu foothold in Summersong. If the reports are to be believed, the residents of the quiet little town were slaughtered down to the last soul, and their children were burnt alive with a flame set collectively by the tribal leaders of these barbarians, although how any witnesses escaped the supposed culling is difficult to ascertain. Despite the brutality of the attack, the lords of the Marble Vale were slow to react, and by the time any semblance of resistance had been assembled, the invaders (calling themselves the Axios) had marched south past the Iter, pillaging and raping villages as they went. * What followed was a short, but bloody war. Within three years, several hastily assembled elven armies were crushed and routed. The king's brother, governor of the entire region, was killed in battle and his headless body was paraded in front of the marauding Axios for weeks as it rotted. By 3E 1251, the last elven outpost in the Marble Vale had fallen and hundreds of refugees flooded north towards the Argent Basin or west toward Samarkhet, where bastions of resistance were being put together. * Eager and confident, the Axios pushed north, seeking to crush the remnants of the Elven Empire once and for all, but here at last they met their first stumbling block. The personal guard of King Athelren IV, known jokingly as the Silver Hand due to the fact that they were untested in combat and had never dirtied their hands with blood, proved their worth in the past of Cirith Vol, where they beat back a much larger but unorganised force of Axios. Over the next two years, the Silver Hand, who now adopted the name as a badge of pride, became the core of the elven army, aided by Sceída raiders who were more than adept at the brutality of war and had never lost their honed edge earned through years of fighting Skraelingi in Ravnmark. * The first invasion ended in the winter of 3E 1253, when the Axios finally had enough and fell back past the Ardari to consolidate their new holdings. The lands they would call Edraxis were split amongst the five clans, with the largest claiming the region of Axia around the rich farmland near Kingslake. It would not be the last war fought over previously elven soil, and many lives on both sides would be lost for centuries to follow. * 'The Vigil '(3E 1354): During one such war, nearly 100 years after the first invasion, a mysterious prophet began preaching the word of a strange religion near the capital of Axia. By 3E 1356 the religion, known as the Church of the Vigil had spread like wildfire, replacing for the most part the shamanistic mix of gods and spirits the Axios worshipped previously. The prophet would disappear abruptly a year later, but his mantle would be taken up by his most loyal disciples who bore his word to the furthest reaches of Edraxis and beyond. * Over the next six centuries, the land would settle into a status quo of sorts. The Elven Empire and the five kings of Edraxis were at each other's throats constantly. Raids from Maruk and Samarkhet were common, and the newly reformed Mordael Emirate swore peace with the Elven Empire but would not rejoin the empire itself. Truces were common in this time period, but all were broken within a few years. For the most part, the two opposing forces were locked behind their respective sides of the Ardari, and never did an army from either side make it beyond a few miles of the mountain passes. * 'Gods & Kings '(3E 1970): Some time during a particularly long-lasting peace, a military coup in Axia placed an ambitious general in power. Convincing the other four kings to mount another campaign north, the armies of Edraxis marched once more, but were crushed in a matter of weeks due to the onset of an early winter. The newly crowned king of Axia was sworn to peace by the Elven Empire and the other four kings of the Axios. Angry and bitter, he turned his displeasure on his subjects with harsh taxes other forms of oppression, becoming the infamous Tyrant King of Axia. Using the hated king as a catalyst, the Church of the Vigil, who had by this point amassed a substantial following and had more or less infiltrated most facets of power, staged another coup in 4E 6. They were successful in taking the throne of Axia, placing the country under religious rule, and their ambitions lead them on a divine crusade that would result in the total unification of Edraxis under the Vigil Protectorate in the year 4E 26. Modern Day * 'The Triskele War '(4E 93): Though the Church of the Vigil remained peaceful with the Elven Empire for a substantial period following the formation of the Vigil Protectorate, this proved to be nothing but a ploy for time. During the decades of peace, the military was consolidated into a professional force, and when a young elven girl, Cassandra I, was crowned queen, the armies of the protectorate, known simply as the Vigil Inquisition, mounted a surprise war north. For the first time in centuries, the extremely disciplined and well-trained Axios forces broke through the mountains and rampaged through Norfeld Reach down to the Ashburn. The ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Ashford, saw the full might of the Elven Empire thrown against the legions of the Inquisition in a gruelling battle of attrition that lasted a full two days. By the end, the High Vigilant had been slain and the inquisitional forces routed, at no small cost. * 'Peace '(4E 98): The war truly ended that day in 4E 94, but would only officially come to a close with the signing of the Triskele Treaty which swore both sides to a white peace in an infamous signing ceremony where the two leaders of the rival factions met face to face for the first time under terms of friendship. Both sides by this point had waged war for centuries, and sheer exhaustion forced the peace more than anything else. * Unable to focus its attentions northward, the Axios armies turned instead to Samarkhet, starting the Blood Dune War in 4E 99; a war that still rages. Although peace between Atheldael and Edraxis was for the most part achieved, the Triskele Treaty had its fair share of detractors on both sides, and remained a tenuous and hotly-debated matter until it was broken by a rebel group known as the Separatists during the Winter Solstice of 4E 102 when they bombed the Silver Citadel during a gala hosted by the queen which numerous high-ranking members of the Church of the Vigil attended. Category:History __FORCETOC__